Most of the time, this writing lark is a fairly relaxed affair. Since my daughter started school, I’ve slipped into a remarkably civilised working routine. Sometimes though, circumstances can conspire against you to engender a scenario where there’s just nothing else for it but to – well, just not go to bed. 12th October was a good example of this. I’d been waiting all day for iOS5 to be released, as I had two tutorials to write for a prominent publication whose copy deadline, it transpired was the morning of the following day, the 13th. By the time the software was finally made available at 6pm GMT, my operating window for downloading, installing, learning and writing about the new OS had narrowed to around 17 hours.

This would have been ok, had Apple’s verification servers not been so overloaded with new requests that every attempt to install failed at the end of a lengthy and unstoppable 40-minute backup and install routine. After eight failed attempts, each one causing me to lose even more hair, I finally got it installed properly at 3am, before churning out the tutorials, sorting the required screenshots, proofing, and uploading. I got it all done with minutes to spare before the 11.30am deadline, before dashing out to have lunch in a room full of 60 4-year-olds at my daughter’s school. This experience would have been surreal at the best of times, but after not going to bed it was positively Kafka-esque.

With any luck, this next working month, the planets will be aligned slightly more favourably.

As you can no doubt see from this picture of my keyboard (courtesy of the iDarkroom iPhone app), it’s been a busy week. What with finishing off my 100 iPad app reviews for the upcoming bookazine, two GarageBand tutorials for iCreate 97 and putting the final tweaks on the new website redesign and blog, it’s safe to say that this has now become my full-time gig. Two nice juicy features lined up for next week too, as well as a stint in Oxford selling photos to graduates. Blimey, it’s all go, innit?

Well, I was so caught up in this week’s writing job of reviewing over 100 news, weather, book and photography apps for an iPad bookazine, I completely forgot that today was WWDC day. As a result, I missed all the webcasts and, by the time I realised, there was only 10 minutes left to go. From scanning the feeds, first impressions are that it was an announcement of many little things, rather than one hugely impressive technology haymaker. The demise of MobileMe is most welcome, as long as there’s a smooth transition to the new iCloud service. Lion looks intriguing, but I get the impression that I’ll have to invest in new hardware to make the most of it, and iOS5 looks the business.
As all the new announcements are digested, I’m sure my opinions will crystallise over the next few days. Now, where’s the link for the QuickTime Keynote video…..?